The Board of Directors of the Zoological Society of Japan, a Public Interest Incorporated Foundation, held a board meeting on Friday, June 2, and deliberated on the candidates for various awards based on the recommendations of the Award Selection Committee. As a result, the recipients of the Zoological Society of Japan Award for Excellence in Zoological Education for FY 2017 have been decided as follows.

 Yoshitaka Oka, President, Zoological Society of Japan  

Zoological Society of Japan Education Award: Shigeharu Akiyama, Professor, Liberal Arts and Teacher Education Center, Minami Kyushu University
Development and Practice of an Educational Program Supporting Female Students' Advancement in STEM, Centered on "Zoology"

Reason for Award: Mr. Akiyama has taught for many years at Seishin Girls' High School, consistently breeding and researching tailed amphibians while teaching female high school students the joy of zoology. Based on these achievements, the school was selected as one of the few all-girls schools for the Super Science High School (SSH) program. For two terms (10 years), he reformed the biology education at Seishin Girls' High School, created a community for women in science nationwide, and spread the new biology education cultivated through the SSH to a wide audience. During this time, the female high school students produced numerous research results and won various awards. What is remarkable is that while managing various aspects of the SSH activities, he also accumulated results in amphibian research and earned a Ph.D. in Science from Hiroshima University. In this way, Mr. Akiyama has poured an endless passion into zoology and deployed that energy toward zoological education for women in science nationwide, which is highly commendable. Therefore, it has been decided to confer upon him the Zoological Society of Japan Award for Education.